Street Outreach makes anti-violence presence felt on violent streets

A fatal stabbing and a drive-by shooting bookend an hour in West Oakland Saturday night, but those who work these streets for Oakland’s anti-violence prevention effort are encouraged. The neighborhood is changing for the better.

The Street Outreach team members who are out every weekend have lived here long enough to sense the change, especially back in the not-do-distant past when each of the four team members had their own problems. They lived on these streets, did drugs on these streets, committed crimes on these streets and now they walk them with the simple message of hope.

“I could never give back what I took from my community,” team member Adam Mayberry said Saturday night. “I made two small decisions: Stop getting high, stop committing crime. That’s all it took.”